Doubledown1233,
That's a nice find!
You have something a little different than most not to mention the custom rear sight!
THERE ARE FOUR BASIC VERSIONS OF .455 chambered Hand Ejector revolvers made by S&W under contract to the British for WW I. Three of the versions, 1., 2., & 4. include some triple locks, but those in the 4th group are actually the same as 1st versions. "If" roll marked with the cal., all that are roll marked are only marked 455 because all versions are actually reamed to also chamber the longer 455 MK I cartridge per the British contract. Therefore the 'book' references to caliber marking of 455 Mark II for all versions of S&W 455 chambered revolvers is a bit of a misnomer.
Yours is a 1st variation as described by Hand Ejector with additional detail here:
1. ".44 HE - 1st Model", 'Triple Lock', .455 chambering: 812* factory reconfigured unassembled or any unsold ".44 Spl HE 1st Model", original chamberings unknown but most or all were likely originally .44 Spl. For the British military there are 666 #s 1104 thru 10417 (obviously not all serial #s in this range were used for the 666), the majority shipped Oct 21, 1914. The extra 146 in serial range #s 9858-10007 went to the commercial market; 123 to England Oct 1,1914, and 23 in the US Jan 1, 1918 [N&J pgs. 203-205]. These 812 .455 TLs were serial #'d in the .44 1st Model serial # range of 1104 to 10417. Per Neal & Jinks. Pg. 214, these are known to have been stamped SMITH & WESSON but not including the 455 cal. stamp.
* SCSW reports "over 800", but by shipped serial # count, it's actually 812, 146 of which are commercial guns [S&W N&J pgs. 203 - 205].
The 666 were shipped in 33 different groups ranging from 4/8/124 to 4/28/16 with the majority delivered 10/21/14. These will often have added lanyard swivels when converted to 455 at the factory by drilling thru the serial # which is factory re-stamped on the left side of the grip frame under the stock.
The 146 .44 HE 1st Models that were converted/built as .455s assembled some time after the first 666 military .44 1st Model .455 TLs and sold commercially; 123 were sold to the British, shipped to Wilkinson Sword 10/1/14 and 23 sold in the US, shipped to Shapleigh Hardware in St. Louis, MO. on 1/1/1918. Some are not seen with lanyard swivels.
The 23 at some point were converted to .45 Colt and it's unknown if by the factory before shipment to Shapleigh or after delivery to Shapleigh. However even IF converted by the factory (as suggested in a September 2013 Rock Island gun auction narrative and likely just a story), the revolvers would not have a star on the butt or a rework date on the grip frame because they did not go back to the factory for conversion as rework, again, if they were converted by the factory at all.
Your #9860 is listed as one of the 23 sold commercially and shipped to Shapliegh Hardware Co., in St. Louis, MO, Jan 1st, 1918 on page 203, "S&W 1857 -1945" by Neal and Jinks, and converted to 45 Colt as described above. Obviously w/o British marks and in that caliber, it never went across the big pond to see action in WWI; not shipped so late, 1918.
The rear sight is similar to a factory installation for Bisley matches which only allowed adjustment for windage, although it is not. More on that next post.
